People will have to take a detour to get to a golf course or a pub just off one of the main carriageways in and out of Dublin, following a High Court ruling yesterday.
An access route to Hermitage Golf Club, a petrol station and the Foxhunter pub on the main Lucan dual carriageway is to be closed by South Dublin County Council.
The owner of the Foxhunter, Frank Towey, sought an injunction restraining the council closing the access route which allows access to his pub and a Texaco station on one side and the Hermitage Golf Club on the other side at Palmerstown Road.
Mr Towey contended that at the time he bought the pub he had been given two letters of comfort in relation to the access route to his premises.
The proceedings began in 1989 when the council began to close off the remaining access gap. Mr Towey submitted that when he bought the premises in 1984, the price paid was based on turnover which was linked to the access being there.
The court heard three of the original access gaps were closed when the road became the Lucan bypass and gardaí gave evidence that the remaining opening posed "extreme danger for traffic and should be closed".
Mr Justice Michael Peart, in his judgment yesterday, said the publican knew this road would become the Lucan bypass. He held that Mr Towey when he bought the premises knew that the existence of these openings was something over which there existed some doubt for the future.
Letters of comfort at the time of the purchase could not form any guarantee against future plans by the council, Mr Justice Peart said.